Book Image

Learn Kubernetes Security

By : Kaizhe Huang, Pranjal Jumde
5 (2)
Book Image

Learn Kubernetes Security

5 (2)
By: Kaizhe Huang, Pranjal Jumde

Overview of this book

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration platform for managing containerized applications. Despite widespread adoption of the technology, DevOps engineers might be unaware of the pitfalls of containerized environments. With this comprehensive book, you'll learn how to use the different security integrations available on the Kubernetes platform to safeguard your deployments in a variety of scenarios. Learn Kubernetes Security starts by taking you through the Kubernetes architecture and the networking model. You'll then learn about the Kubernetes threat model and get to grips with securing clusters. Throughout the book, you'll cover various security aspects such as authentication, authorization, image scanning, and resource monitoring. As you advance, you'll learn about securing cluster components (the kube-apiserver, CoreDNS, and kubelet) and pods (hardening image, security context, and PodSecurityPolicy). With the help of hands-on examples, you'll also learn how to use open source tools such as Anchore, Prometheus, OPA, and Falco to protect your deployments. By the end of this Kubernetes book, you'll have gained a solid understanding of container security and be able to protect your clusters from cyberattacks and mitigate cybersecurity threats.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Kubernetes
7
Section 2: Securing Kubernetes Deployments and Clusters
14
Section 3: Learning from Mistakes and Pitfalls

Summary

In this chapter, we went through the concept of least privilege. Then, we discussed the security control mechanism in Kubernetes that helps in implementing the principle of least privilege in two areas: Kubernetes subjects and Kubernetes workloads. It is worth emphasizing the importance of implementing the principle of the principle of least privilege holistically. If least privilege is missed in any area, this will potentially leave an attack surface wide open.

Kubernetes offers built-in security controls to implement the principle of least privilege. Note that it is a process from development to deployment: application developers should work with security architects to design the minimum privileges for the service accounts associated with the application, as well as the minimum capabilities and proper resource allocation. During deployment, DevOps should consider using a PodSecurityPolicy and a network policy to enforce least privileges across the entire cluster.

In...